Çanakkale

Blessed with a superb setting on the Dardanelles straits, ÇANAKKALE is a vibrant harbour town with a multicultural past that can be found in its compact old quarter, and a busy seafront that’s home to a replica of the Trojan horse used in the 2004 film Troy. While the town undeniably makes a convenient base for the World War I battlefields at Gallipoli, on the European side of the Dardanelles, as well as the ruins of Troy, Çanakkale itself deserves at least an overnight stop, with a couple of interesting sights and a nightlife scene that positively hums in the summer. It’s also the starting point for sea buses to the Turkish Aegean islands of Gökçeada and Bozcaada.